The second race in the Red Hook Crit 2014 series took place at the spectacular waterfront venue, Parc Del Forum in Barcelona Spain before a crowd of over 5,000 roaring spectators. With record attendance and before an absolutely electrified crowd, the Barcelona No. 2 was taken by a new athlete that no one saw coming. 21 year old Guatemalan cycling prodigy, Julio Padilla, countered his teammate’s earlier breakaway perfectly to pull away from the lead field with only a few laps remaining, crossing the finish line with his arms raised high while the chase pack followed merely a few bike lengths behind.

His teammate and Winner of the Rockstar Games Top Antagonist Award, Eduardo Colon, earned the inaugural prize by paving the way for Padilla in a long solo break that at moments placed him a full eleven seconds ahead of the field. Positioning in the chase pack was fiercely contested by Brooklyn’s winner Thibaud Lhenry, second place finisher Augusto Reati, and other race favorites Kyle Murphy, Mario Paz Duque and Nicholas Varani, as riders fought to catch up to Colon’s blistering pace.

WOMEN’S RACE REPORT

The first women’s criterium on European soil was won by Ainara Elbusto Arteaga, followed by Fleur Faure in second. For the first time in Red Hook Crit history, siblings took the podium with Reati’s sister, Vittoria Reati taking third place. By the midpoint in the race Ainara had swept up both primes and it had became apparent that Ainara was in a league all her own as she constantly put in attacks that split the field. She would go onto win the sprint and in turn take the overall lead in the championship series.